Union action

 Work to rule

I have always supported the working man, I am not against the bosses, we need to work together to gt the best results. I joined the TGWU - Transport and General Workers Union - in 1978 for job protection, not to take industial action.

Until the mid mid-80's I was a staunch unionist, but that decade changed my standpoint. At this time, the unions stopped being a support for the working man; they became a political weapon intent on bringing down the Conservative party.

At the time, I supported the Labour party, but I could see the damage the Unions were dong with incessant claims for wage increases, which the Labour party gave into, forcing inflation to unbearable levels. 

It was these demands, more than the actions of Margaret Thatcher that sped up the demise of the party.

When I was in college I crossed a pocket line during a students striek, for me it wasn;t hard; my friend Richard was stopped, he was half my size. After crossing the line, and said, "You're playing into their hands."

The people on the line turned to me with a look of bewilderment, so, I continued, "As long as the tutors turn up, they'll get paid. If you don't go to classes, they will be paid for readng thier newspaper."

To ths day, I fnd it both amazing, and bewildering that a Union leader, and a lady who went to University did not understand the concept of overtime.

I was working in Bristol Museum at the time of the incident.

The workers had decided to work to rule, which meant no overtime    was being worked. This hit the curartors, many of whom we knew as friends, as they vouldn't hold their evening meeting without at least one of the security staff being on duty.

The NALGO - National Association of Local Government Officials - representative tried telling me that we had to attend the overtime, as it is in our contracts; I had to explain to her what the term oertime meant, to a normal person the term is self-explanitory. 

A few months later, NALGO went on a three-day strike, the result - nothing - as they are office workers the effect on the publiv was nil; all the did was give themselves three days more work.